Car door



E. G. BUSSE June 23, 193s.

CAB DOOR Filed June 24, 1933 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN1/Mraz Edv/'f7 ase .47'RNEY Patented June 23, 1936 PATENT OFFICE CAR DOOR Edwin G. Busse,Chicago, Ill., assignor to Chicago v Railway Equipment Company, Chicago,Ill., a

corporation of Illinois Application June 24, 1933, serial No. 677,367

14 Claims.

The invention relates to door construction particularly of the type usedon railway box cars, and the invention consists in a novel frame andpanel construction.

There are a large number of freight cars in use in which the doorpaneling is made of wood surrounded by a steel frame of standardcommercial rolled sections, usually Z-bars or angle irons. The woodpanels in these doors rot relatively quickly due to their exposure tothe weather and the entrance of moisture between the wood and steelframework. In order to maintain the doors waterproof, it is customary toreplace the wooden paneling every four to eightxyears, depending uponvarious conditions of service, maintenance and weather.

There is a growing tendency to use all steel doors on freight cars, andmany combinations of paneling and framing members have been placed uponthe market. Some of these all steel door structures can only b eproduced by utilizing expensive forming dies, which vincreases ythe rstcost of the doors and makes it diiiicult or impossible for a railroad torepair such doors except by obtaining parts from the manufacturer which,of course, involves undesirable delay and expense.

The main object of the present invention is to provide a door panelingwhich may be formed readily in any well equipped metal works shop, suchas is maintained by railroads generally, and may be readily applied toan angular framework such as has been commonly used in doors havingwooden panels or bodies. Obviously, such a renewable metal panelingshould be free of irregular and complicated formations.

It is highly desirable to keep the Weight of doors of the type describedto a minimum and yet the doors must be rigid enough to withstand forcesapplied thereto in service and it is a further object of the inventionto provide a simple, `easily formed and assembled panel structure whichwill possess the necessary rigidity and yet not be unduly heavy.

It will be understood that the construction described below is notnecessarily limited to replacement of old wooden panels but may beutilized in new door construction.

In the accompanying drawings which illustrate structures in which theabove described objects are attained Y Figure 1 is a side elevation of arailway car side ydoor embodying kone formof the invention with partsbroken away in 'order to more rclearly show other features. y

Figures 2 and 3 are respectively horizontal and (Cl. 18S- 46) verticalsections taken on the corresponding section lines of Figure 1 and drawnon a larger scale.

Figures 4 to 10, inclusive, are fragmentary sections illustratingdetails of modified panel construction.

The door frame is rectangular and'consists of four Z-bars I, 2, 3 and 4secured together by gussets 5 at the corners of the frame. The web 6 of`each Z-bar is disposed perpendicularly of the general plane of thedoor; the flanges 1 at the outer face of the door are turned inwardly,and the flanges 8 at the inner face of the door are turned outwardly.

The door body consists of a plurality of relatively long panels 9extending from side to side of the door, each comprising a rectangularplate with its marginal portions I0 flanged inwardly at right angles tothe body of the plate. The flanged portions I0 of each panel abut thecorresponding langes of the adjacent panels and the uppermost andlowermost flanges II and I2 abut the Webs 6 of the upper and lower Z-barframe members I and 2, respectively. The ends of the flanges I0, II andI2 preferably abut the webs I3 of the upright side Z-bar frame members 3and 4.

By means of modern welding equipment, th parts of the door may besecurely assembled with each other by spaced lines of welding,continuous or intermittent, as indicated at W, W and W, and this mannerof welding the panel sections to each other and to the Z-bar framingprovides ample rigidity to the construction. The door body is reinforcedby a series of transversely extending elements IIl--I having a thicknessequal to twice that o-f the body panels and united by the lines ofwelding W-W spaced transversely of the general plane of the door, andthe door body or panel assembly is similarly united with the Z-barframing by the lines of welding W" also spaced transversely of the planeof the door. The welding of the ends of each pair of flanges Ill-I0 tothe webs I3 of the vertical Z-bars ties the inner and outer edges ofthese vertical webs to the intermediate portions of the plate panelsand, in effect, forms a beam or girder extending from side to side ofthe door and having a depth corresponding to the depth of the Z-bar.This effect is produced without the addition of reinforcing angles orother structural shapes to the plate body, which would increase theexpense and weight materially and provide numerous'crevices for theadmission of moisture and dirt tending to corrode and weaken the steelstructure. 'Ihe construction also eliminates the requirement ofexpensive dies for distorting the panels into reinforcing formations.

All of the plate bending can be handle by a bending brake or othersimple equipment. Preferably the panels are interchangeable and may bestocked in quantities at the railroad repair shops or, indeed, one ormore plates may be replaced by bending up flat sheets. The paneling maybe substituted for wooden panels without any other change in the doorconstruction and the door thereby produced would not suffer incomparison with steel doors being produced and involving more diicultand complicated and even heavier construction. The panel members may beassembled with each other prior to their application to the door, theuniting of the inner and outer portions of the panel flanges producing aseries of girders extending across the door, each girder having aneffective depth corresponding to the full width of the flanges. The doorbody assembly may oe applied to the frame without any punching of holesfor rivets or bolts.

The door may include customary accessories, such as the top hangers H,spark and weatherprcoiing side strips S, and horizontal lower barsforming with the web and inner flange of the Z-bar a housing for a guiderail at the bottom of the door which, if desired, may also be used as atrack for a supporting door or ball bearing.

The simple form of the invention illustrated in Figures 1, 2 and 3 issubject to variation without departing from the spirit of the invention,and various suggestive forms of such variations are shown in theremaining gures.

In Figure 4, one inturned marginal portion I5 of each panel i6 isilanged downwardly as at Il andV overlies the adjacent edge of the upperinturned portion i3 of the next lower panel I9, forming a Z-shaped platemember. This providesa vertical reinforcement of the double rib -l atthe inner side of the door and spaced from the cuter face formed by thebodies IG-IS of the panels. X-X indicates the spaced lines of weldingcorresponding to W-W in the structure previously described.

YIn Figure 5, the lower marginal portion of the panel 2&3 is flangedinwardly at 2 l, downwardly at 22, and the Z-shaped member thus formedis supplemented by another flange at 23 to cooperate with the upperportion of panel 24 to form a box section 25 which provides even greaterrigidity at the connection between the two panels. The 4welded jointsare indicated at Y-Y.

Figure 6 illustrates a similar construction in which a downturned flange35 is provided at the outer end of the out-turned flange 23', the weldedjoint being indicated at Z and Z.

In all of the above described structures, the body of the panel is aflat plate and the flanged connecting portions are relied upon toprovide all of the necessary reinforcement other than that afforded bythe door frame. If desired, the plates may be bent intermediate theirmarginal portions as indicated in Figure '7, in which a U- shaped offset26 provided between the upper and lower anges 21 of the panelsubstantially increases the rigidity of the latter. The offset 26 liesin the general plane of the door framing 28.

In Figure 8, a similar offset 29 is provided but projects outwardlybeyond the plane of the door framing 38 giving a greater over alldimension between the outermost and innermost elements of the panel.

Figure 9 illustrates a construction in which each panel includes aplurality of oiset portions 3| and a box section 32 is formed by thecooperating marginal portions of adjacent panels. The door bottomcommercial rolled structural shape is an angle iron 35 and the lowermostoffset portion 3| of the lower door panel is secured to the edges of theflanges of angle iron 3| along lines spaced transversely of the doorbody to form a box section bottom member. Except for the frame bottommember 35, the door frame is preferably of Z bars as previouslydescribed.

In Figure l0, the marginal portions of the panels are bent to formV-sections 33 and a relatively narrow channel-like plate 34 overlaps theV-section marginal pgrtions of adjacent panels and is welded to each ofthem at spaced points as indicated at T and T'.

These and other variations in the formation of the plates may be madewithout departing from the spirit of the invention and all of theseconstructions attain to various degrees the objects set forth in theintroductory portion of the specification, and I contemplate exclusiveuse of these and other modifications which come within the scope of myclaims.

What is claimed is:

l. In a railway car door, a frame of commercial rolled angular shapeshaving portions disposed substantially parallel to general plane of thedoor and portions projecting transversely of said plane,

like member reinforcing the panel structure transversely of said plane.

2. A railway car door as described in claim 1 in which the welding ofthe panel sheets to the frame and to each other extends in continuouslines from edge to edge of the door, to close the crevices betweencontiguous members.

3. In a railway car door, a panel structure comprising a plurality ofplates with flanged marginal portions projecting transversely of theplane of the door, and a rectangular frame including com- 1 mercialrolled Z-bars with their webs extending transversely of said panelstructure, the ends of the bodies of said plates overlapping and beingsecured to flanges of said frame Z-bars, throughout the width of saidplates and the ends of said plate flanges abutting and being welded tothe webs of said frame Z-bars at points spaced from said flanges andthroughout the width of said flanges.

4. In a railway car door, a rectangular frame including commercialrolled Z-bars with their webs disposed transversely of the general planeof the door and with their anges disposed in planes paralleling thegeneral plane of the door,

and a panel structure comprising rectangular 6 plates including marginalportions abutting each other and having elements spaced aparttransversely of the general plane of the door and secured together bywelded joints spaced from each other transversely of the general planeof the door, and the ends of the bodies of said plates overlapping andbeing welded to the corresponding anges of said frame Z-bars, and theends of said marginal portions having elements 75 welded to the webs ofsaid frame Z-bars throughout the width of said webs.

5. In a railway car door, a rectangular frame comprising commercialrolled angular shapes disposed to provide a substantial depth of frametransversely of the general plane of the door, and a panel structureconsisting of plates with fiat body portions and marginal portions bentat right angles to said body portions and secured to each other so as toprovide girders of thicker section than the bodies of the platesextending from side to side of the door and of substantial depth inplanes transversely to the general plane of the door, the ends of saidgirders being tied to the inner and outer parts of said frame shapes sothat the depth of the latter contributes to the rigidity of the girders.

6. A railway car door as described in claim 1 in which theinterconnected portions of the panel structure plates form a hollow boxsection from side to side of the door.

'7. A railway car door as described in claim 1 in which theinterconnected portions of the panel structure plates form a hollow boxsection from side to side of the door, the box section being formed bypairs of right angle elements welded together at diagonally oppositecorners of the section.

8. In a railway car door, a rectangular frame including commercialrolled Z-bars with their webs disposed transversely of the general planeof the door and with their flanges disposed in planes in the generalplane of the door, and a panel structure comprising rectangular plateseach including a marginal portion bent to form a Z-shaped sectioncorresponding in depth to said frame Z-bars, one of said marginalportions being juxtaposed with a corresponding portion of an adjacentplate to form a hollow girder, the ends of said panel marginal portionsoverlapping inturned flanges of said frame Z-bars and abutting the websof said frame Z-bars, and welded to said flanges and to said websthroughout the depth of the latter.

9. A railway car door panel applicable to a separately formed completerectangular frame, and consisting of a plurality of plates havingreinforcing flanges at their edges projecting at right angles to theplates and along the same, said plates being arranged in series withadjacent portions of successive plates overlapping each other and unitedby lines of welding extending lengthwise of the plates and spacedtransversely of the general plane of the door panel to form a rigidpanel structure.

10. A railway carl door panel applicable to a separately formed completerectangular frame, and consisting of a plurality of plates havingreinforcing ilanges at their edges projecting at right angles to theplates and along the same, said plates being arranged in series withportions of adjacent plates overlapping each other and forming boxsections having welded corner joints substantially spaced aparttransversely of the panel and extending from one edge of the door to theother.

11. A railway car door panel applicable to a separately formed completerectangular frame, and consisting of a plurality of plates each havingrectangular marginal portions turned substantially at right angles tothe body of the plate, adjacent marginal portions of successive platesbeing in abutment and welded together along lines spaced aparttransversely of the plane of the plate bodies to form reinforcing websperpendicular to the plate bodies and double the thickness thereof.

12. In a railway car door, a frame of commercial rolled angular shapeshaving portions disposed substantially in the general plane of the doorand portions extending transversely of said plane, and a panel structuremounted on said frame and consisting of a plurality of metal plates withmarginal anges extending at right angles to the plane of the bodies ofthe plates, contiguous plates having abutting flanges welded to eachother along both their longitudinal edges and the ends of said flangesbeing welded to the inner and outer parts of the frame portionsextending transversely of the general plane of the bodies of the platesso that interconnecting elements of said frame portions and panelflanges form bracing structure of continuous rectangular outlinedisposed transversely of the general plane of the door.

13. In a railway car door, a frame of commercial rolled angular shapeshaving members disposed substantially parallel with the general plane ofthe door and portions extending transversely of said plane, and a panelstructure including a plurality of metal plates with marginal portionsof adjacent plates overlapping each other and including elements spacedfrom each other transversely of said plane and secured at their ends tosaid members at points spaced transversely of said plane to form agirder-like member reinforcing the panel structure transversely of saidplane from one frame shape to the other.

14. In a railway car door, upright rigid side framing members, a panelstructure extending between said members and including a plurality ofmetal sheets, said sheets having flanged marginal portions extendingacross the door between said members and spaced from the top and bottomof the door and overlying each other, each of said portions beingwelded, along a line spaced from its edge, to the other sheet wherebysaid marginal portions are interlocked and form a girder of substantialdepth transversely of the general plane of the door and extending acrossthe door from one framing member to the other, and means securing theends of said girder to said framing members. v

EDWIN G. BUSSE.

